Bill enables temporary treatment at center for defendants

Summary#

HB 5822 would amend Illinois’s Attorney General Act and add a section to the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1963. Its stated goal is to let the Clyde L. Choate Mental Health and Developmental Center temporarily detain and treat defendants while the Department of Human Services (DHS) finds a permanent placement. The bill is introduced and is not law.

  • DHS must permit the Choate Center to receive direct temporary admissions under the Code’s fitness-for-trial article.
  • After a court orders placement, DHS must evaluate the defendant to identify the most appropriate secure facility. If DHS has no immediate placement, the sheriff may ask the court to order temporary placement at Choate.
  • Choate must assess each temporarily admitted defendant’s physical and mental health, recommend a permanent placement to DHS, and review treatment and psychiatric status at regular intervals.
  • DHS must consider Choate’s recommendation, update the Center on its placement efforts, and notify the sheriff when a permanent placement is available. The sheriff must then promptly transport the defendant.
  • Each defendant must be assigned to a permanent facility within 30 days of admission. DHS would face a civil penalty, with additional penalties every 30 days, for failing to provide permanent placement on time; the Attorney General may enforce this requirement.

What it means for you#

  • Defendants covered by the fitness-for-trial article: If DHS has no immediate placement, a sheriff may ask a court to order temporary placement at Choate for treatment and evaluation. The bill does not say that every defendant would be sent there.
  • DHS and Choate Center: They would have new evaluation, placement, notice, and review duties. DHS must also adopt any rules needed to implement the new section.
  • Sheriffs and courts: A sheriff may request a temporary-placement order when DHS lacks immediate placement. After DHS identifies a permanent placement, the sheriff must promptly transport the defendant.
  • General public: The bill does not change the fitness standards, trial rules, or criminal penalties in the supplied text. It does not create a new independent agency.

Money#

No publicly available information on the bill’s expected cost or fiscal impact.

  • DHS and Choate would have to carry out evaluations, placement work, reviews, notices, and rulemaking. The bill gives no funding or staffing estimate.
  • The bill creates civil penalties against DHS but does not state the amount or how the penalties would be calculated.

What is unclear#

  • The bill does not explain how the 30-day deadline would work if no permanent bed is available, or what process would decide whether DHS had complied.
  • The operative text says each defendant “shall” be assigned within 30 days. The bill’s synopsis adds “whenever possible,” but that qualification is not in the operative text.
  • The bill does not set the civil penalty amount or explain how it would be imposed or collected.
  • The bill does not provide application or intake rules, decision timelines, an appeal process, or reporting requirements.
  • The current parent laws were not supplied, so the existing placement process and how this proposal would interact with it could not be verified.

Case for#

  • A possible argument for the bill is that it provides a designated temporary treatment location when DHS does not have an immediate permanent placement.
  • Requiring physical and psychiatric evaluations could help inform the choice of permanent facility.
  • Regular reviews and a 30-day assignment deadline could create pressure to keep looking for permanent placements rather than leave defendants waiting without a deadline.

Case against#

  • One concern is that a deadline and penalties may not create available permanent beds; the bill does not explain what happens if placement is still unavailable.
  • The bill leaves key parts of the process and the penalty amount unspecified, making it hard to tell how the deadline would be enforced.
  • Choate would take on temporary admissions and repeated reviews, but the bill gives no estimate of the added workload or resources.
  • It is unclear how the 30-day assignment requirement relates to the separate wording about “providing” permanent placement and determining placement availability.